


Careless Wanderers

by ConvenientAlias



Category: Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Genre: Community: trope_bingo, Daisy has a daughter, F/F, Post-Canon, Remember?, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 19:06:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13864080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConvenientAlias/pseuds/ConvenientAlias
Summary: “I have an idea,” Jordan says. “How about you pack a bag for yourself and a bag for Pammy and we go for a trip? Pammy’s never seen California, has she?”After Gatsby's death, Daisy needs to get away from New York for a while and Jordan is the woman for the job.





	Careless Wanderers

Nick Carraway won’t return Jordan’s calls.

Daisy, on the other hand, won’t stop calling.

She calls and tells Jordan they need to talk and then won’t get down to business. She starts talking about how she misses France, wasn’t that a nice time she and Tom spent there, wouldn’t it be nice if things could just be like that again. Or: oh Jordan I miss the days when we were young. Things were simple.

(As if anything between Daisy and Jordan had ever been simple. But Jordan admits times were better then than they are now.)

Daisy keeps on calling but when Jordan says, look here, she’ll come over and they can talk in person, Daisy makes excuses. She’s busy with Tom. She’s trying harder to get along with Tom. She makes herself sound like a martyr.

Daisy keeps on calling but she won’t talk about what happened a couple weeks ago. The woman who is now dead. The man who was her lover who is also now dead. Jordan doesn’t bring them up either. None of it’s her fault so why does she have to be the one to confront it?

Daisy keeps on making excuses as to why Jordan can’t come over but eventually Jordan gets fed up. She already has Nick flown away and refusing to see her—he’s a non-starter—and she’ll be damned if she’ll let her best friend do this to her too. She drives on over to the Buchanan estate and walks on in as if she has a right to be there, which she does, and of course the butler doesn’t try to stop her. He tells her the young missus is up in her bedroom. Jordan finds her there. One of her eyes is red. The other is black.

“How’s Pammy?” Jordan asks her.

“Who?”

“Your daughter,” Jordan says sternly. She crosses her arms. This will not do. This will not do at all.

Daisy laughs a breathless little laugh. “Oh, Pammy’s fine. She’s got a new picture-book, just the other day. It has pictures of animals in it. Now she wants me to buy her a cat.”

“How does she like the beach?” They’ve all gone swimming together but Pammy always stays home.

“Fine. Do you want to talk to her?” Daisy tilts her head.

“I have an idea,” Jordan says. “How about you pack a bag for yourself and a bag for Pammy and we go for a trip? Pammy’s never seen California, has she?”

“California?” Daisy laughs again. “Why, Jordan, that would take—”

“We can take a train if you want. I’d rather take a car. If you’re fine with driving after the accident.” She’d be fine with driving herself and Daisy, but with Pammy she doesn’t trust herself.

“Jordan, I know what you’re trying to do. But I’m mending things with Tom. I can’t just leave him.”

Mending. Sure. Jordan puts her arms around Daisy. “You said you missed things being simple.”

“Yes, but I can’t…”

“Tell him you need to get some air. Tell him I’ll be your chaperone. I’ll take you to Santa Barbara,” Jordan promises. “You can have some fun and forget about all this mess. Anyways you can’t be tragic forever over other people’s problems. None of this was your fault.”

Forgetting problems always appeals to Daisy. She argues for a little longer and then agrees. She calls Pammy into the room. “Honey, go pack some things. We’re going on a trip with Aunt Jordan.”

They leave the next day.

 

* * *

 

Daisy tells Jordan to drive the car at first. Jordan objects. Daisy insists. Jordan gives it a good go.

Cars and civilians avoid her swerving and barely-made-it stops. In the back Pammy starts screaming. Daisy says in a high voice that maybe Jordan can drive a little slower. Jordan does. Daisy says, “All right, I’ll drive.”

She drives for the rest of the day. Jordan sits in the back seat with Pammy, making sure she stays seated and keeps her belt on. Daisy talks to them about the city they’re staying the night in, and how she’s never been there before. Jordan tells her not to worry, they have reservations at the hotel. All right, Daisy says. All right.

Pammy likes the view out the window. She doesn’t say much but what she does say she speaks in very clear words, rarely screaming as she did earlier. She sits up very straight in her seat and whenever she catches Jordan looking down at her she smiles brightly.

They could have left her in New York. Tom wouldn’t have touched her, and Daisy has left her behind for many trips before. She is closer with her nurse than with her mother. But Jordan likes Pammy. Pammy is good for Daisy, even though she’s one thing that keeps her with Tom. She brings out Daisy’s very small responsible side. She keeps Daisy grounded. That’s something not even Jordan can do.

She’s also a nice kid. Deserves better than any of their crowd, really, but hey, she’ll grow up to be a big shot someday, probably marry as rich as her mother. They’ll all keep on going this way.

At the hotel that night Daisy won’t come out of the bathroom. Jordan comes in and finds her staring at herself in the mirror.

“I look like a very nice girl, don’t I?”

Jordan kisses her cheek. Tries to kiss her neck and is shrugged away.

“I’m a good driver,” Daisy says desolately. “You were right to make me drive.”

“I didn’t…”

“I never have accidents. What happened the other day will never happen again.” She smiles at Jordan. “I just let it all get to me. He got to me. And that woman—she was his mistress, wasn’t she? You told me she lived at the gas station and she had red hair.”

Jordan had indeed said that. Daisy had asked her to find out what she could about the competition, and Jordan always did what Daisy asked her to do. She had ears everywhere in the web of New York.

“It got to me. And she shocked me, running into the street like that.” Daisy swipes at her lip, rubbing at lipstick she had already taken off. Jordan gently pulled her hand away.

“These things happen to the best of us. It wasn’t your fault. And it won’t happen again.”

“I just didn’t stop on time,” Daisy says distantly. “It was an accident. I didn’t mean it, really.”

Jordan kisses her again, this time on the lips. “I know. You’re still a good girl. You never do anything wrong.”

Pammy is already in her nightgown when they come out, and she sits expectantly on one of the beds. “Nurse always reads me a story.”

“I didn’t bring any story books, darling.”

“I did.” Pammy pulls a book out of her bag. It turns out, when they look into it, that she has only brought one change of clothing and the rest of it is all books and toys.

Daisy huffs nervously. Jordan says, “I’ll read it to you.”

 

* * *

 

Jordan knows Daisy well. Knows she not only loves to forget her troubles but is good at it, really. There is some private corner of her heart where she hides them all away, but it is a small part and the further they get from New York, the less important it is to her. She is starting to enjoy herself.

They have bought a guide book on flora and fauna and Pammy is mostly using it to find pictures of birds. She can’t read what they’re called but sometimes she recognizes one. Then she hands the book to Jordan and Jordan tells her the name. She doesn’t usually remember the words for them but she clearly finds this task of identification very important.

There are ways to get to California quickly. Jordan doesn’t see the point in those. They are in no particular hurry—autumn has only begun, and while she enticed Daisy with promises of the beach, she really just wants to get Daisy’s blood moving. If they end up in Santa Barbara and it’s already October, so be it. They’ll flit between restaurants and other fashionable corners of the world, and it will all be good so long as Tom is far away.

Daisy sends Tom telegrams. At first she sends one every night. After a week she sends one every two nights, then only once a week. “He’ll cope,” she says carelessly. “What has he ever needed me for?”

Jordan has never been one to defend Tom. Were it up to her, they could forget him entirely.

She cannot fit the universe to this wish but she can make him disappear for a couple of months.

When Pammy gets fidgety about all the car rides, they take days off to explore the cities. They can afford the hotels for as long as necessary, after all. For Daisy at least, money has never been an issue. Jordan is not quite so lucky but she doesn’t exactly have to worry about it either.

In Denver, they stroll through parks and let Pammy feed the birds. Jordan holds Daisy’s hand and sits with her on benches, letting her lean into her side. She only kisses Daisy on the cheek in public. She knows if she brought Daisy to a speakeasy, at least one of the ones she prefers, she wouldn’t have to worry about that—they could do whatever they wanted and have a rollicking good time, and the crowd would only cheer them on. Two things stop her:

One, she has not been taking Daisy to speakeasies or wild parties. Daisy does not like that kind of noise at the best of times, even though Jordan loves it. Now she might put up with them for Jordan’s sake but Jordan isn’t dumb. Daisy needs to bury her sadness in a quieter way. Jordan won’t push it.

Two, for the whole trip Daisy has been accepting Jordan’s advances but not pushing them any farther or encouraging them. And while they have always been the most intimate of friends, they haven’t had sex all summer. Not since Daisy met Gatsby and tried to pair Jordan with Nick. Well, Jordan isn’t exactly missing Nick but she is willing to give Daisy her space.

 

* * *

 

When they reach Santa Barbara Jordan gets them a suite in a hotel neither of them have been in before. They love this city. It holds good memories for both of them but bad ones as well. No need to bring the bad back to the surface.

They take Pammy to the beach. It is late fall, not weather for swimming. She digs in the sand and collects shells in a tin bucket. Jordan and Daisy collect shells too, and sit on a blanket together and talk.

They have been there for three days when one morning Jordan wakes up late to find Daisy sitting naked on top of her hips. There is a blanket between them but she is staring down at Jordan heatedly, a crooked smile on her face. She has a hand on Jordan’s cheek and this is what woke Jordan up in the first place.

“You’re feeling nostalgic?” Jordan asks her.

Daisy says, “I got a maid to watch Pammy. Paid her ten bucks for the whole day. We can do anything.” She shifts her position, rubbing against Jordan’s hips. “What do you want to do?”

“I feel like you’ve already made plans.”

Daisy grins. “A few, maybe.”

Jordan doesn’t sleep in the nude. She has quite a modest nightgown for this trip, actually, a child usually being present. She pushes Daisy off, stands up, takes the nightgown off briskly and gives Daisy her full attention. “Where did your plans start?”

They start with kissing. But they escalate pretty fast. They spend what remains of the morning in bed, order in some lunch, go back to business. Finally they’re too exhausted to go on anymore and lie next to each other, more worn out than on any day of travel.

“This was a good idea,” Daisy says. “I ought to spend more time with you.”

Jordan turns. It’s never good when Daisy starts making blanket statements. She puts her arms around Daisy. “That’s certain.”

“You know we will have to go back to New York soon,” Daisy says.

“No. New York isn’t home to either of us.”

Daisy sighs. “I guess it’s not.”

They used to have a home in a small town in the Midwest together, small and rich and closely packed. Now they’re grown up. Homes are for children. Adults are always on the move, ghosting between cities, spending every night at a different hotel or bar, oftentimes with different lovers. Once Jordan thought home was Daisy, too. But that’s a delusion. Daisy’s a vacation spot, Daisy’s a memory even when she’s in your arms. Impermanent, nothing one can hold onto, not for longer than a few months. Neither of them has a real home. Daisy has a Tom and a Pammy but Jordan knows she’d get rid of them if she could. That’s not how someone feels about their home.

“I love you, Jordan,” Daisy says. “I always have. You know I do.”

Jordan’s arms tighten around her. “Darling, I adore you.”

Daisy kisses her, gentle and chaste. “You always have the loveliest ideas. Well, we can stay another couple weeks, I suppose.”

And then on again. Jordan wonders if Daisy means to go back to New York, or back to Tom wherever he intends to go (she doubts he’ll stay in New York long), or stay with Jordan and travel a little longer. She doesn’t ask. “A couple of weeks? Well, I suppose it’s not so much the beach season.”

“That’s why I love you. You understand everything.”

Jordan doesn’t think she really understands a thing, only that Daisy needs her now and she won’t fail her. She lies close to Daisy and pretends to be wise and waits for Daisy to say they have to get up and put their clothes back on, Pammy will be back any minute and they’d look pretty silly if they got found with their clothes off in bed together, wouldn’t they?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the trope of road trip for Trope Bingo. I've been trying to play around with femslash for the challenge. So far, so good.  
> Comments and kudos are much appreciated! Or look me up on tumblr at convenientalias.


End file.
